Abstract (in English)

Cities around the world contain abandoned industrial brown-field sites that once played a critical
role in the development of their urban areas, but which now lie dormant and inactive. ‘Toronto Brown-field
Redux’ is the story about the adaptive reuse of two such sites within the largest city in Canada; one an
abandoned streetcar storage and repair facility located in the midst of a downtown neighbourhood, and
the other an abandoned brick-making plant located in one of the many river valleys that help define the
physical character of the city. In both cases, a unique heritage building formation, long abandoned, has been
revitalized and transformed into a vibrant, mixed-use community hub, with sustainability as a major design
theme. In both cases, the re-development of these unique, publically owned sites was led by not-for-profit
agencies, rather than government, and depended upon extensive community engagement and partnerships
for capital funding, programming and ongoing stewardship. Both projects exemplify the overall symposium
theme, “Heritage – Driver of Development.”